Mnemonic Plague? I Can’t Remember!

As a child, I was forced to take piano and hated it. Well, I was 5 years old, so cut me some slack. I wanted to play outside with my friends, not inside with 88 keys. At any rate, I remember learning the notes on the staff. The lines stood for Every Good Boy Does Fines (keys E, G, B, D, and F). The spaces? FACE (for…well, F, A, C, and E).

I think that one needs work. If it’s a good burrito, wouldn’t it fall apart because it was packed full of, uh, goodness?

Mnemonics can really help the brain process the information and remember it later for recall. As silly as those were, I remembered the keys on the staff. But that’s not the only mnemonic to have helped me. The Medical field has a lot. How about the symptoms of a stroke: F.A.S.T. (Facial drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties and Time to call emergency services).

The only problem comes when you can’t remember the mnemonic, like Penny in Big Bang Theory attempting to remember the side effects of a medication. When reminded, she immediately rattles off: “Gastric distress, redness, anal leakage, vasculitis, yellow eyes.” Sadly, it wasn’t yellow eyes, but she was close.